That's it.

I don't know what's taken me so long. I should have admitted this fact ages ago, but there was always that "What if I want to start it again? What if people really enjoy it?" at the back of my mind. Realistically though, that's not going to happen. So for those who still haven't a clue what I'm announcing still... I'll tell you.

As of today, I will begin the permanent cessation of all blogging activity. Yes that's right, I quit. Why? 'Cause I'm a quitter.

The real reasons are typical as you'd expect them to be... I'm older now, more work, more responsibility. So there you have it. Honestly, it's been fun. This was my first "online project" I've taken by myself and even assembled a couple of friends. But hey, it didn't work out...

Now, I have the experience and got the know-hows, it won't be long (I hope) before I embark on another project similar to this as I genuinely enjoy this sort of thing.

There you have it folks, thanks for all you who have visited and even those who have followed and favourited this humble blog! It means a lot and every visit kept me going just that bit longer... By the way, I always go by the name "Goggy", so you'll know how to look out for me if you so wish to.

Farewell!

/blog

Yotsuba&! Manga Review

Yostubato&! (aka Yotsubato) Manga Review:

Well, this will be the first review that I've ever done that will not be handed in as homework and THAT really says something about this series.

Yotsuba&! is a slice of life manga and as you know the slice of life genre for anime or manga could simply not exist without comedy tacked on. I've watched many slice of life animes but Yotsuba&! is my first manga of the genre therefore I have no basis of comparison. But does it really matter? I caught up with this manga yesterday so I haven't really had time to wallow in cynicsm to pick holes in the manga because that's not what a review is about! I'm just review it because I absolutely enjoyed it, simple raw enjoyment. Unlike anime reviews though, where the reviewer has several points to pick on such as voice acting, art, animation and such. Manga, it's just the art and story.

It IS a slice of life, I swear! She's holding a water pistol T.T

This unique manga is a slice of life that REALLY feels like a slice of life. Again I have no basis of comparison accept for anime but for example Lucky Star and Azumanga Daioh you dip in and out of several characters lives but that doesn't happen in Yotsuba&!. The reader follows the life of Yotsuba, a five year old who is clueless, hyper and simply hilarious, in her new town. Each chapter records another day in Yotsuba's activity filled life so the reader really gets that sense of continuity which was great. The jokes are often centered around Yotsuba's youth and innocence, for example falling to sleep in a bed store or thinking that white cows make plain milk and brown cows make coffee milk, which I guess can turn some heads away, but that never once happened to me.

Other characters such as the neighbours, Yotsuba's dad and his friend's Jumbo and Yanda (<-- My favourite character!) play an important if not more important role than Yotsuba because it is mainly Yotsuba's reaction to all these different characters that makes this manga so heart-warmingly comical. All the characters have such wonderful, weird, unique and perhaps most essentially they all have a realistic personality and it is virtually impossible to not like any of them.

As for the art, I have read enough mangas to know that it was nothing special but it was perfect for a slice of life manga. In fact it's simplicity emphasises Yotsuba's youth, it also gave it a more light-hearted, easy-on-the-eyes feel which was in stark contrast to Minami-Ke, in my opinion.

I'd give this manga 10 out of 10 any day and I look forward to seeing it as an anime. Finally for a conclusion I'd like to leave a complaint to balance my overly biased review: Why are the volumes released so irregularly?!

Excuses for the recent lack of posts:

Okay, so as you know I study in the U.K. But what do I do when I'm not here? I go back home... To Thailand. Yup. That's right. I'm Thai. Right now though, I'm back in the U.K. and waiting for school to start. Unfortunately, the place I'm staying at the moment has a download limit due to some stupid contract with BT broadband and because I'm not the only one using the internet here, I have to be considerate and whatnot. So yup, that means no anime until I can get my hands on an unsecure network nearby or an internet cafe. It's sad to see the page views going down so rapidly but I don't blame you. This means Spice and Wolf posts will be done at a later date :(. Currently, I'm just trying my hand on some mangas. I'm more of an anime-man myself but recently I've been enjoying some pretty good mangas such as Yotsubato which has encouraged me to review it.

(P.S. That lazy dick, TK, is all talk and no walk... What a douche X.X)

Ok.................I'm Back (At Last)

As The Title says...I am gonna start my blogging again.
It took a while but after much rest and "rebooting" I think I am ready to start.
I have spent a couple of weeks away and a few too many hours gaming.
So I am gonna start off with Needless Episodes 1 - 4 in summary and then single them after.
Lets hope I can remember to do this and stick to it.
Hope to post my blogg soon.
TK

Canaan - Episode 5 - WTF!?!? Moment...

I'm not planning to blog on Canaan, I just saw this and couldn't resist!

Just for laughs!

...

...

"lolwut?"

Kagami (Lucky Star) is probably the best person to summarise how I felt...

Spice and Wolf Season 2 - Episode 4

Well I'll be damned. It didn't turn out exactly as I predicted last episode. But I still stand by my prediction, just because it hasn't happened doesn't mean it won't happen. It just looks like the producers are going to drag this out and kick it around a little. Not that I have anything against that since this arc seems pretty decent on its own. The thing that really surprised me was that Horo signed the marriage paper with Amati. I wonder how they're going to reverse that?

This week trading was pretty mind boggling actually since Lawrence is planning to get back Horo by essentially trying to crash the pyrite market so Amati would be unable to pay off Horo's debt leaving her no choice but to stay with Lawrence. So maybe Lawrence won't reverse the marriage contract and instead forcefully drag Horo along. Pretty smart, but pretty harsh...

It was all pretty complicated but I'm going to try and summarise it to the best of my ability.

• Lawrence makes a deal with Amati to sell 500 Trenni Silvers worth of pyrite to Amarty by evening of the next day on credit.
• Amati agrees to this and Lawrence on credit.
• Because Lawrence sold the pyrite on credit, even if the price of pyrite crashes, the 500 Trenni Silver won't be affected.
• Next, Lawrence plots with his friend (the wheat store owner) to crash the pyrite market by getting his apprentice to the spread word around that "the price of wheat is rising". This will crash the pyrite market since most merchants came here primarily to deal wheat anyway and pyrite was more like a souvenir to them.
• His friend refuses to give Lawrence any aid as this could potentially tarnish his name in the town and he cannot risk it since he is a town merchant unlike Lawrence who is a traveling merchant.
• However, his friend suggests that Lawrence should go talk to the alchemists (who were mentioned early on, a couple of episode ago) who have their own separate pyrite stash which is completely secluded from the market. Therefore by leaking these pyrite into the market, Lawrence can still crash it!

Spice and Wolf Season 2 - Episode 3

The Contract

Pyrite (i.e. Fool's Gold)

This episode was surprisingly dramatic. This is probably the first time we have witnessed Horo and Lawrence seriously fighting since usualy it's just friendly banter between them. It was kind of creepy with Horo freaking out, as demonstrated in the picture above, because she found out from the letter the witch lady (last episode) sent that her hometown has been destroyed. In addition, with Amati has settled a deal "sealed by blood" with Lawrence in which he promises to repay all (1000 Trenni Silver) of Horo's debt so she will be free from her creditor (Lawrence), he plans to ask Horo to marry him. This convenient set up coupled with Horo panic attack means that this might spell the end of LawrencexHoro.

Meh... it was dramatic and all. But we know that Horo and Lawrence are inseperable. Plus it way too early for anything that significant to happen. I'm predicting that next episode Lawrence will make up with Horo by saying something like "Even if the record say they are destroyed, there's still a chance, lets find it together!" or something cheesy like that.

Heck that's just my prediction but I will be VERY surprised if I am proven wrong.

Spice and Wolf Season 2 - Episode 2

Amati participating in a medieval auction for his girl.

Ah, a late post is late. But here it is anyway...

Quite a lot of progress in terms of character development and plot development but it didn't quite feel like it. In fact, it didn't feel like anything significant happened at all. The way they presented it made it seem as if these were trivial matters but these "trivial matters" have potential to grow into something big pretty soon.

For the character development side, further misunderstandings about Horo and Amati (the boy merchant) and Lawrence. This false love triangle promises to stir up quite a mess in later episodes. Whereas in terms of plot development, Lawrence has found out more about Yoitsu and has confirmed it's destruction. Horo has yet to find out...

No actual trading this episode... More like the "trading of information" (i.e. folk tales). Lawrence gained a valuable piece of information from the witch lady. According to her, Yoitsu was destroyed by a moon-bear. It was all pretty convincing as she managed to recall reading about Horo the Wise seekng for assistance. In return, Lawrence told her about the tales and traditions down south concerning Horo and her influence on the harvests.